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Assassin’s Creed 3 multiplayer review

After finishing the epic story line and trying my luck at finding all the pivot points and completing not all but a fair bit of the additional content aside from the main story missions, I finally figured why not give the multiplayer a shot. I’ve never been a fan of the AC multiplayer seeing as it gives you little chance to fight back, once you’re spotted you’re pretty much done for.

Player Customization

As this game depends heavily on stealth and hiding, there has to be a lot of customization to variate your characters from the rest. At the start of the free for all game modes you are able to select the skin of a character you want to be, be quick though because once someone selects one, it’s off the market! Not only do you get to pick a unique skin from everyone in the match, you will have you own skill set that you selected in the “customization” menu.

Ability sets become available as you level up and gain experience and (bronze or silver) triangles. These skill sets will vary from secondary weapons to defensive maneuvers. For instance, you might fancy knives and smoke bombs, or perhaps a musket? All these will become unlocked as you progress through the level system. It’s a little bit complicated to understand, but some abilities require you to be a certain level and have the crafting abilities unlocked to use those abilities. All in all, there’s a lot of things to unlock and use. It’s not easy to just pick up and play as most people expect their multiplayer experience to be.

Gameplay

Nobody who’s every played Assassin’s Creed for the campaign has ever thought about what it would be like to be the hunted. When you sink your virtual blade into the bodies of those Templar douche-bags you don’t really think about how you would react or feel on the sharp end of the stick. Assassin’s Creed multiplayer puts you into this position and gives you all the tools to almost handle it well.

Something most multiplayer games don’t do and Ubisoft does with this is they give you an interactive tutorial to multiplayer (brought to you by Abstergo Entertainment, bastards!). Through this tutorial you explore various ways to assassinate your targets (other players) and how you can (limitedly) defend yourself from pursuers. Inevitably, if you are being pursued, more than likely you are about to get killed unless you manage to get away from the other player by hiding in haystacks or going through chase breakers (doors that shut after you run through them) or stun them by landing a sucker punch in their face. In the event that you do get caught, your pursuer will always have the upper hand so you’re pretty much dead if they catch up to you.

All the essential details to assassinating and getting away if you’re going to be assassinated are described in the tutorial, which is ultra helpful for noobs like me! If I were to ever make a gameplay video of Assassin’s Creed 3 multiplayer video, it would be super sucky.

There are several modes that you can participate in as a newly initiated multiplayer assassin, and those modes include Deathmatch, Wanted, Assassination, Artifact Assault, Manhunt, Domination and Wolf Pack. The 3 modes are for the lone wolf assassins who prefer to work on their own as opposed to with other assassins. Deathmatch is just what it sounds like as you have to identify your target whilst still avoiding your own pursuer. Wanted relies on gaining the most points by killing and stunning players. Assassination tests your skill at finding the target, locking on and observing and then completing a kill, but you have to make sure not to reveal yourself either. These free for all modes are pretty standard and very intense, they become especially humiliating if you aren’t paying close attention to the surroundings and other possible players.

The other modes are team and co-op modes where you are paired or teamed up with other players to achieve certain objectives. Manhunt is pretty much Assassin’s Creed 3’s version of Team Deathmatch. Standard game modes combined with the slightly over the top and extremely unique gameplay of assassin’s creed and the intensity of being assassinated make this multiplayer really unique. AC multiplayer really tests you on your ability to observe and assess the situations.

Although it’s a really slow type of multiplayer, the sensation and satisfaction of getting a stealth kill or completely murdering someone’s face with an axe quickly becomes addicting and will definitely give you that adrenaline you were lacking while stalking your prey. No matter what game mode you are playing, if you get assassinated by an opposing player, it’s going to make you feel like a complete failure and quite humiliated. On the other hand, if you manage to score a kill and then perhaps another kill without dying, then you’re really on a roll and you have the right to feel as jubilant as you will.

Problem, the game lobbies seem really empty. Just a week or so after the game was released and the multiplayer lobbies are slow and under-populated. That doesn’t bode well for the multiplayer aspect of this game, whilst the single player campaign is quite amazing the multiplayer experience doesn’t seem to be doing it for most people. Also, something that doesn’t click with a lot of people is that you can’t just go around killing anyone, there are specific targets and you may see someone acting like a player but you can’t kill them because they’re not your target, and that gets frustrating.

Summation

The multiplayer for Assassin’s Creed is beyond unique and like nothing I’ve ever played before. There’s nothing quite like assassinating players and getting that satisfying kill after tailing someone and observing their actions. Granted this game isn’t for everyone in multiplayer terms because it requires a lot of patience. You’ve got to master the act of being an NPC to throw the scent off. To be brutally honest, this type of multiplayer isn’t really for me but it was fun when I played it. Definitely something different from the standard aim and shoot.